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As we drove nearer to Auckland, the surroundings became gradually more urbanised and then began to fade away as we passed through the other side. We reached Paeroa at the southern end of the Coromandel Peninsula and decided to call it a day for long distance driving and explore the area a bit. The town was small and fairly non-descript but did have a small supermarket at which we bought some bacon- the first in a long, long time- and subsequently fried it up down by the river side. I'm afraid we ate more than our fair share of bacon sandwiches that afternoon and couldn't face anything else for the rest of the day-it was were fantastic!
We'd picked up a leaflet on local walks from the town i-site. An i-site is like a tourist information centre with everything you would want to know on the area. They are all over the place and generally put in a lot of effort and are of a high standard- perhaps because the NZ economy is heavily dependant on tourism. We selected a riverside walk along past the remains of a former gold mining operation in the area and you could still see
some of the old buildings with plaques describing what they were used for. The gorge itself was pretty impressive, with theroad clinging to the side of the hill, just above the river.
That evening we camped at a nearby DOC basic site. Basic sites are free to camp at and have toilets along with a water source- usually either a tap or stream. We found the concept very useful and subsequently have made an effort to stay at basic sites when they crop up to save some cash.
Later, when going out of the van after dark, I was confronted by a pair of eyes about head height, reflecting at me in the moonlight. A little shocked, I shone the torch at it and it turned out to be something the size of a small Koala, totally black and it immediately scurried up the tree that it was clinging to. A few days later realised that it was our first encounter with a possum and really showed how prevalent the wild life is here (unlike England) in that it is plentiful and not always totally timid.
The next day we headed down to Te Aroha for a
look around on our way towards the geothermal areas of the country. We did a 45 minute walk up to a viewpoint over the bay of plenty and it was as flat as far as the eye can see, filled with farmer fields like a patchwork quilt. On the way down we sat for 5 minutes to watch a small geyser erupt, shooting water a few feet in the air. It was tiny compared to the ones we'd see at Rotorua but nice enough. Heading away from Te Aroha, we stopped in at the i-site and got directions to a scenic route to Rotorua via a trek to a waterfall. The 45 minute trek through the ferny sub-tropical jungle was nice, although uphill all the way, and with a fantastic waterfall at the end with water plunging dozens of feet from a sheer cliff.
Onwards to Rotorua, we made it to town jut before dark and decided to treat ourselves to a powered site and with hot showers at one of the town's many holiday parks (Rotorua is the most visited place on the north island for holiday makers). The site was relatively cheap at $20 and had a
guest kitchen so we didn't have to cook in the van, a TV room and best of all a hot swimming pool, heated by the geothermal warmth by pumping the water just a few feet below ground level. Needless to say we headed straight for the pool!
Our next stop was 'Wai-O-Tapu' geothermal park which is run by the DOC and is one of the many competing geothermal parks in the area. They start the day off with a small talk at the Lady Knox Geyser, which they then cause to erupt at 10:15am. Some geysers erupt with precise regularity (like the infamous 'Old Faithful' at Yellowstone Park) but as this one does not, they manage to engineer an eruption each morning for the tourists. They doing this by pouring in soup powder which apparently breaks the surface tension of the superheated underground water, causing the geyser to erupt for all the gawking tourists to photograph. The rest of the park is an array of bubbling mud pits, stinking sulphur cauldrons and colourful acidic lakes filled with luminous mineral deposits. You wander around the park looking at all the all these curiosities along with their equally curious names such
as 'Devils Arsehole' (or some such body part) and alike, taking photos and choking on sulphur fumes- fun for all the family!
After we'd finished here, we decided to head to towards the east coast and on to Napier via bone shaking gravel road through Te Urewa national park. This route includes 80km of unsealed road, deeply rutted by logging trucks making for a slow, bumpy but spectacularly picturesque ride. Apparently the road took 45 years to build and runs past forest covered mountains and beautiful valleys. Interestingly, it is classified as a state highway which is very misleading when you're looking at it on a road map. As the journey took longer than expected, we journeyed most of the way that day and stopped late afternoon at a conveniently situated basic DOC campsite for the night. We had the place to ourselves so broke out the picnic table and chairs to dine alfresco on our feast of bangers and mash.
Our journey on the delightful road continued bright and early the next day for several hours, passing the spectacular lake Waikomoana- a huge lake up in the mountains which takes four days to walk around and has
some beautiful bays, waterfalls an sheer cliffs around it. The highway brought us out onto the main Gisborne-Napier route about halfway down, running down Hawke's Bay. We were hoping to following the bay along and get some seaside views but disappointingly the road runs slightly inland with no sea views, just winding up and down the hills. Eventually we reached Napier, famed for its wineries as well as its art deco style. The town was apparently destroyed during an earthquake in 1931 and was rebuilt in an art-deco style which is attractive in a different kind of way.
We'd arrived on ANZAC day which is a kiwi holiday and the town was bustling with life. We bought some fresh fruit & veg from market stall and had a look around the place, stopping at the i-site to pick up a map with the locations of all the local wineries on. We stocked up on our food supplies from the supermarket and headed out to find 'The Mission' vineyard/estate. This was more difficult that we'd hoped and needed several u-turns as we got lost in sprawling suburbia but eventually found the place.
We followed a tree-lines driveway along and
up a small hill to the main building which was a kind of mock Tudor mansion, looking down over the fields of vines- very picturesque! They had free tasting inside and we ended up buying a couple to take away as they were so good. That evening we found a free campsite near the beach which was run by the local authorities but strictly speaking we shouldn't have been there as it was supposed to e only for 'self contained camper vans' i.e. with toilet. Consequently we spent the night in fear of the authorities coming around and giving us the boot- nobody did but we were slightly nervy!
We departed swiftly the next morning to go to Havelock North (a small town about 30mins away with yet more wineries). The place was quite pretty and had some brilliant automated toilets which had electric star-trek style doors, automated toilet role dispensers and even played music while you were in there. We spent the morning looking around and the afternoon visiting more wineries for free tastings (including the oldest vineyard building in its original setting) eventually heading back towards the central island and lake Taupo, this time taking the tarmac
road!
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